The concept of continuously coating substrates has long been a desirable mode of operation and there are machines which can continuously sputter a coating of material (such as aluminum) onto a substrate. The present invention is described in connection with coating aluminum onto compact disk substrates. With respect to coating compact disk substrates, heretofore in the prior art, it has been done by batch systems as well as by continuous systems which are best exemplified by a system developed by a European company. In the prior art system the continuous machine is approximately twenty-two feet long. That prior art system is composed of one long single chamber which has many pumping stages to achieve the required low pressure as the substrates move therethrough. Ideally, the European system is housed in a "clean room" so that the chamber does not become contaminated which in turn would contaminate the substrates and provide inferior coatings. Substrates passing through the European prior art system are held in rectangular blocks and are arranged in a horizontal train as they pass through the single chamber. The sealing endeavor is extremely difficult because a large volume of air is entrapped around each rectangular carrier, which results in high leakage and accordingly many pumping stations are required. The seals which surround the blocks wear out rapidly because of the long horizontal excursion and require relatively frequent replacement. The European system has some undesirable aspects in that it is costly because of its size and its complexity. In addition, it is costly because of the necessity of a large clean room. The prior art operation is a critical operation because of the many vacuum pumping stations in a single chamber. In a preferred embodiment, the present apparatus is approximately seven feet long. The present apparatus is flexible (can be wheeled anywhere) and the present system does not require a clean room. The features of the present system are an improvement on the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,631.